YALE AND EUROPE -1850-1857 29 



Porter's instruction in philosophy opened our eyes and 

 led us to do some thinking for ourselves. In political econ- 

 omy, during the senior year, President Woolsey heard the 

 senior class "recite" from Wayland's small treatise, 

 which was simply an abridged presentation of the Man- 

 chester view, the most valuable part of this instruction 

 being the remarks by Woolsey himself, who discussed 

 controverted questions briefly but well. He also delivered, 

 during one term, a course of lectures upon the historical 

 relations between the German States, which had some in- 

 terest, but, not being connected with our previous in- 

 struction, took little hold upon us. As to natural science, 

 we had in chemistry and geology, doubtless, the best 

 courses then offered in the United States. The first was 

 given by Benjamin Silliman, the elder, an American pio- 

 neer in science, and a really great character; the second, 

 by James Dwight Dana, and in his lecture-room one felt 

 himself in the hands of a master. I cannot forgive my- 

 self for having yielded to the general indifference of the 

 class toward all this instruction. It was listlessly heard, 

 and grievously neglected. The fault was mainly our own ; 

 -but it was partly due to "The System," which led stu- 

 dents to neglect all studies which did not tell upon 

 * ' marks ' ' and ' ' standing. ' ' 



Strange to say, there was not, during my whole course 

 at Yale, a lecture upon any period, subject, or person in 

 literature, ancient or modern: our only resource, in this 

 field, being the popular lecture courses in the town each 

 winter, which generally contained one or two presenta- 

 tions of literary subjects. Of these, that which made the 

 greatest impression upon me was by Ralph Waldo Emer- 

 son. Sundry lectures in my junior year, by Whipple, and 

 at a later period by George William Curtis, also influenced 

 me. It was one of the golden periods of English liter- 

 ature, the climax of the Victorian epoch; the period of 

 Wordsworth, Tennyson, and the Brownings, of Thack- 

 eray and Dickens, of Macaulay and Carlyle on one side 

 of the Atlantic, and of Emerson, Irving, Hawthorne, Ban- 



